“I don’t know.” She grew quiet as though giving his suggestion some serious thought. “I pictured something elegant, not bright and colorful.”

Ethan wheeled his pickup into the entrance of the Sunny Days Physical Rehabilitation Center. The visitor parking lot was full, which didn’t bother him. A full lot meant lots of visitors for the patients. Who could object to something like that?

Once he located an available spot in an adjacent lot, he parked. He turned off the engine and turned to her. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Blue.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. It was a color he could work with. “They didn’t have enough white tiles to do both rooms, but they had some other colors in the same tile. Blue was one of them. I don’t know if it’s elegant or not, but we could do a white and blue check design.”

She didn’t immediately reject the idea, so that was something, but she hadn’t exactly jumped at the idea either. “What other colors did they have?”

“They had gray and green. They were sold out of black.” When she frowned, he said, “Or we can get the wood and try to cut costs from somewhere else.”

She shook her head. “Flooring is a big-ticket item. We should do it your way. I’m sure it’ll grow on me…eventually.”

He pulled a picture of the tile up on his phone. “This is it.”

When he handed it over for her to take a closer look, their fingers brushed, causing his heart to thump hard. There was just something about her that got to him. She pulled away, as though she hadn’t noticed the electric charge between them. He told himself it was for the best, but he still felt disappointed about her lack of interest in him.

Hannah stared at the phone, swiping across the screen a few times. “It’s not bad. It’s a deeper blue than I was imagining, which is a good thing. And I like it better than the other colors. It helps that it’s real ceramic tile.”

“I’ll let you know what else I find.” He hooked Peaches’s leash. “We should get going.”

They walked across the parking lot in silence. When he reached for the door handle, he felt a hand on his arm. He glanced over at Hannah to find her staring back at him.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“For what?”

“Not being more excited about the great deal you’ve found. I’m grateful. Truly I am. It’s just when you’ve had a certain image in your mind for so long, it takes a bit to modify it.”

“Believe it or not, I understand. I’ve seen your beautiful drawings, and I promise to make the bakery as elegant as I can while still saving money.”

“Thank you for everything.” She smiled.

His heart beat faster. “Happy to help.”

“Does your aunt know I’m coming with you?” Hannah asked as she clutched the purple binder to her chest.

“Yes. I told her. She was excited, as Sunny Days is far from Bluestar, making it a haul for her friends to visit. And a lot of her friends no longer drive.”